National Book Award Finalist

Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of The Namesake comes an extraordinary new novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.
 
Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up.  But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan—charismatic and impulsive—finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family’s home, he goes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind—including those seared in the heart of his brother’s wife.

Masterly suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate, The Lowland is a work of great beauty and complex emotion; an engrossing family saga and a story steeped in history that spans generations and geographies with seamless authenticity. It is Jhumpa Lahiri at the height of her considerable powers.

This ebook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.  

These eight stories by beloved and bestselling author Jhumpa Lahiri take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life. Here they enter the worlds of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers. Rich with the signature gifts that have established Jhumpa Lahiri as one of our most essential writers, Unaccustomed Earth exquisitely renders the most intricate workings of the heart and mind.

'Rich. . . eclectic. . . a feast' Telegraph

This landmark collection brings together forty writers that reflect over a hundred years of Italy's vibrant and diverse short story tradition, from the birth of the modern nation to the end of the twentieth century.

Poets, journalists, visual artists, musicians, editors, critics, teachers, scientists, politicians, translators: the writers that inhabit these pages represent a dynamic cross section of Italian society, their powerful voices resonating through regional landscapes, private passions and dramatic political events.

This wide-ranging selection curated by Jhumpa Lahiri includes well known authors such as Italo Calvino, Elsa Morante and Luigi Pirandello alongside many captivating new discoveries. More than a third of the stories featured in this volume have been translated into English for the first time, several of them by Lahiri herself.

This book is made up of twenty-three stories, each from a different author from across the globe. All belong to one world, united in their diversity and ethnicity. And together they have one aim: to involve and move the reader.

The range of authors takes in such literary greats as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jhumpa Lahiri, and emerging authors such as Elaine Chiew, Petina Gappah, and Henrietta Rose-Innes.

The members of the collective are:

Elaine Chiew (Malaysia)
Molara Wood (Nigeria)
Jhumpa Lahiri (United States)
Martin A Ramos (Puerto Rico)
Lauri Kubutsile (Botswana)
Chika Unigwe (Nigeria)
Ravi Mangla (United States)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)
Skye Brannon (United States)
Jude Dibia (Nigeria)
Shabnam Nadiya (Bangladesh)
Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)
Ivan Gabirel Reborek (Australia)
Vanessa Gebbie (Britain)
Emmanual Dipita Kwa (Cameroon)
Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa)
Lucinda Nelson Dhavan (India)
Adetokunbo Abiola (Nigeria)
Wadzanai Mhute (Zimbabwe)
Konstantinos Tzikas (Greece)
Ken Kamoche (Kenya)
Sequoia Nagamatsu (United States)
Ovo Adagha (Nigeria)

From the Introduction:

The concept of One World is often a multi-colored tapestry into which
sundry, if not contending patterns can be woven. for those of us who worked
on  this  project, ‘One World’ goes beyond the everyday notion of the globe
as a physical geographic entity. Rather, we understand it as a universal idea,
one that transcends national boundaries to comment on the most prevailing
aspects of the human condition.

This attempt to redefine the borders of the world we live in through the
short story recognizes the many conflicting issues of race, language, economy,
gender and ethnicity, which separate and limit us. We readily acknowledge,
however, that regardless of our differences or the disparities in our stories, we
are united by our humanity.

We invite the reader on a personal journey across continents, countries,
cultures and landscapes, to reflect on these beautiful, at times chaotic, renditions
on the human experience. We hope the reach of this path will transcend the
borders of each story, and perhaps function as an agent of change.

Welcome to our world.

Ópera prima con la que la escritora indo-norteamericana inició su fulgurante trayectoria literaria, una colección de relatos lleno de emociones y desasosiegos.

Los nueve relatos que componen este libro revelan la maestría de Lahiri para trazar una compleja cartografía emocional, la de una serie de personajes que en su búsqueda de la felicidad traspasan fronteras geográficas, culturales y generacionales. Ambientadas tanto en la India como en Estados Unidos, estas historias despliegan la riqueza y la profundidad de la mirada de Lahiri, capaz de detectar los más sutiles conflictos en las relaciones humanas y plasmarlos con una delicadeza incisiva y conmovedora. Nadie que, por cualquier motivo imaginable, se haya sentido alguna vez en su vida extraño y alienado del mundo podrá evitar darse por aludido en estos relatos.

Así pues, en estas páginas soberbias, Jhumpa Lahiri plasma un complejo tapiz de emociones y desasosiegos, una incursión a la intimidad de las personas que, indefectiblemente, resulta cautivadora por su belleza, su poder de evocación y la perennidad de su discurso.

Reseñas:
«Una voz maravillosamente personal [...]. La escritura de Lahiri es tan diestra y elocuente que el lector se olvida de que El intérprete del dolor es el primer libro de un autor joven. [...] Lahiri es una escritora de una elegancia y un aplomo extraordinarios.»
The New York Times

«Me encantaría ser capaz de escribir historias como las que contiene esa joya llamada El intérprete del dolor. Historias simples y sutiles, sembradas con sentimientos inesperados, como un campo de minas.»
Pedro Almodóvar

«Tras leer algo de Jhumpa Lahiri, te dan ganas de parar a la primera persona que te cruzas y decirle: -¡Lee esto!- [...] Posee una voz inconfundible, buen ojo para los matices y oído para la ironía. Es uno de los mejores escritores de relatos que he leído.»
Amy Tan

«Lahiri tiene el don de desentrañar el significado de las relaciones breves: entre amantes, amigos, personas a las que conocemos en un viaje.»
Time

«Una escritora de rara sensibilidad y concisión.»
The Wall Street Journal

«Lahiri insufla vida en cada página, y el lector acaba todos los relatos doblemente seducido, deseando poder compartir una novela entera con esos personajes.»
The New York Times Book Review

«Jhumpa Lahiri escribe con una prosa tan directa y translúcida que uno casi se olvida de que está leyendo [...]. La fuerza de este excepcional primer libro de relatos proviene fundamentalmente de su delicada voz narrativa.»
Newsweek